Shifting Smoothly with ADHD: Stop Task Switching Stress – ADHD Tips That Actually Work

Hey boss, we've covered starting struggles and stopping challenges, but what about the difficulties we encounter when changing course? I'm talking about the constant shifting between client work and your own projects, the whiplash of jumping from creative work to administrative tasks, and dealing with interruptions large and small where you can't seem to remember where you left off or have the motivation to dig back in. Welcome to this final piece of the ADHD Entrepreneur puzzle, Shifting Smoothly. I'm Diann Wingert, this is the ADHDish podcast, and today we're talking about how to transition without losing your mind or your momentum.

By 6:00pm my brain felt like scrambled fricking eggs. Not because any individual task was so difficult, but because the constant switching between contexts was exhausting. Different types of thinking, different priorities, and different energy levels were required for each task. Sound familiar? Well, here's what nobody tells you about ADHD brains. The cognitive load of moving between different contexts is higher for us than for neurotypical brains. And when you are running a business, context switching is not occasional or optional. It is the freaking job description.

But here's the thing, and this is why I saved this topic for last in the Momentum series. Smooth transitions aren't just about managing your day better. They're about maintaining the momentum you create when you start strong and preserving the progress you make when you stop smart. Tough transitions kill momentum. They create friction that makes everything harder. They turn productive days into exhausting slogs where you feel like you've been busy but you don't have much to show for it. But smooth transitions, they compound your effectiveness. They help you maintain your flow across different types of work, and they spare your sanity and lower your burnout risk. Let's dig deeper.

I want to tell you about three different entrepreneurs who are all drowning in different types of transition problems. I'm going to call them task switching whiplash, context switching chaos, and re-entry friction. First, there's Blake. Blake runs a consulting business and is Trying to launch an online course. Their typical day involves shifting between client work, course creation, marketing, and business administration. But every time they switch contexts, they lose about 20 minutes getting into the right headspace for that task.

When Blake moves from client strategy work to course content creation, they have to shift from analytical thinking to creative thinking. Then when they shift from course creation to marketing, they have to move from long form content to short form messaging. When they jump to admin work, they have to shift yet again from big picture thinking to detail management. By the end of the day, Blake feels like they have been running a mental marathon. Sure, they've accomplished things, but they feel exhausted from constantly changing gears and because they're tired, the quality of the work suffers too.

Then there's Marcus. Marcus has three different client projects running simultaneously, plus his own business development. Each client has different communication styles, different project management systems, different priorities, and different deadlines. Marcus finds himself constantly confused about which project he's supposed to be working on. He'll open up a document thinking it's for client A, realize after digging in, oh, shit, this is actually for client B.

Then he'll remember he was supposed to be working on his own marketing. And all of this results in occasionally sending emails to the wrong client, ooooh. Or missing deadlines because he forgot which project they belong to. This is so relatable. And you know what else? The mental overhead of keeping track of all of these different contexts is eating into Marcus's actual productive time. He's spending more energy managing confusion than actually doing the work.

Then there's Maya. Maya had terrific momentum on her business going until she got Covid. This laid her up for a couple of weeks. And when she tried to get back to work, she literally couldn't remember where she left off on any of her projects. Her notes made sense two weeks ago, but now they might as well be written in a foreign language. So Maya spends three days trying to figure out what she's supposed to be working on.

And by the time she gets back up to speed, she's lost all the momentum that she built before getting sick. It felt like starting over from scratch and that is so demoralizing. It took Maya to a place where she was wondering, are these projects even worth continuing? Now, all three of these scenarios sound different, but they actually illustrate the same underlying problem. Tough transitions and guess what? They don't just waste time, they waste mental energy. And if you have an ADHD brain, mental energy is just about your most precious resource. Every time you switch context without a bridge, your brain has to work so much harder to refocus.

Every time you come back to a project and you didn't leave proper breadcrumbs, you have to spend precious cognitive energy just remembering where you were. Every time you're confused about what you should be working on, you're depleting the mental resources you need to actually do the work. This is why some days feel exhausting, even when you haven't accomplished much. It's not that you're lazy or unfocused or aren't trying. It's that you're spending all of your mental energy on the transitions instead of on the actual work. Now, neurotypical brains can often power through rough transitions. Oh, they might lose a few minutes here and there, but neurotypical brains bounce back relatively quickly. ADHD brains? Not so much.

We struggle with what psychologists called task switching costs, the mental effort required to stop thinking about one thing and start thinking about another. For us, these costs are higher and our recovery time is longer. It turns out all those years that we've spent bragging about our miraculous multitasking abilities, we were only fooling ourselves. You know what else we also struggle with working memory. You don't have to tell me that keeping track of multiple pieces of information at the same time, so hard. So when we're juggling multiple projects or multiple contexts, we're more likely to lose track of the details, forget where we left off, or mix up information between different work streams, I am really guilty of this one.

We also struggle with cognitive flexibility, which means adapting our thinking style to different types of tasks. Moving from creative work to analytical work to administrative work requires different mental modes. And those shifts are harder for ADHD brains to make smoothly. Here's what makes transition problems especially brutal, they compound throughout the day. So the energy you waste on the first tough transition makes the second transition that much harder. The confusion from switching contexts in the morning makes you more likely to make mistakes in the afternoon. And by the end of the day, a day full of rough transitions, you're not just tired, you're freaking spent.

You don't have the mental resources left for good decision making, creative problem solving, or quality work of any kind because you're running on fumes. And when you're this depleted, everything just gets harder. Starting strong becomes impossible because you don't have the energy to overcome the initial resistance. Stopping smart becomes difficult because you're too tired to make good judgment calls about when something is actually good enough to call it done. So rough transitions don't just hurt your productivity, they undermine the entire system of effective work management.

Now, I'm sure by this point you are very eager to hear okay, Diann, I get it, now how are we going to fix it? All right, I have good news and I call it the transition bridge system. It is built around a simple core principle. Instead of cliff jumping between different contexts, you're going to build bridges that carry you smoothly from one type of work to another. I mean, think about the difference between jumping across a ravine, assuming you could even do such a crazy thing, or walking across a bridge. The jump might be faster if you make it, but it requires a lot of energy, it's risky.

And if you don't make it, clearly you are way worse off than before you started. A bridge takes more effort up front because you got to build the thing, but it gets you across safely, consistently, and with a lot less energy expenditure. Plus, once you've built the bridge, every future crossing becomes easier. That's what we're doing with transitions, building bridges between different contexts so that you can move smoothly without losing momentum or mental energy.

Now, I mentioned breadcrumbs earlier. Let me tell you more about the breadcrumb trail method. The foundation of smooth transitions is leaving yourself useful breadcrumbs so that you can find your way back to where you left off. Not all breadcrumbs are created equal, so you need the right level of detail for different types of tasks. For daily task switching, when you're moving from one type of work to another within the same day, you need minimal breadcrumbs. You're not stepping away that long, just enough to jog your memory without cluttering your workspace. So before you switch from one task to another, leave yourself three things.

One sentence about where you left off, one sentence about what to do next, and any relevant links or files that you're going to need to jump back in. Here's the basic template. Just finished reviewing Q3 metrics. Next step is creating the presentation deck. Spreadsheet is in the Q3 folder. Bing. Bang, boom, that's it. Don't write a novel, just your GPS coordinates. Now, if you're talking about project transitions where you're switching between different projects or you're putting a project on hold, you need medium breadcrumbs, enough context to avoid relearning what you've already figured out.

Create a project pause note that's going to include current status and recent progress, immediate next steps with specific actions, key decisions you've already made so you don't go back and rethink them important context or background that might not be obvious to the future you and any deadlines or time sensitive elements. And then for extended breaks like a vacation, an illness, surgery, or busy periods where you just can't even think about certain projects for weeks or longer, well, you're going to need more comprehensive breadcrumbs. Enough information to onboard yourself back into your own work.

So before you step away from something for more than a week, record a two minute voice memo walking through your current projects. Update your project management system with your current status on everything. Set realistic reentry expectations in your calendar because I promise you friend, it's going to take longer than you think to get back up to speed and do yourself a favor and plan a specific getting back up to speed day instead of jumping right back into productivity. I didn't do this for years and it cost me plenty.

Now let's talk about transition rituals that actually work. Because the breadcrumbs concept is so helpful when you use the different types of breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs handle the information side. But I think with ADHD we also need transition rituals. The difference between the two is the breadcrumbs handle the technical, practical information side. The rituals handle the mental and emotional side. Different types of transitions require, different ritual approaches. For those micro transitions moving from task to task within the same work session, you need simple reset rituals. These are pattern interrupts, physical movement, stand up, stretch, walk to the kitchen, get a glass of water, pet the dog.

Environmental changes are really helpful to signal a shift that might be adjusting your lighting, moving to a different location or putting on a different playlist. It's a mental reset. You know what else helps as a mental reset? 3 deep breaths and a quick check in with yourself about your energy level and your focus. Sometimes your energy level tells you it's time to go take a walk or have a cup of coffee. Now these micro rituals literally take 30 seconds to two minutes. But make no mistake, they may be short, but they're powerful because they're just enough to give your brain permission to let go of the previous context and prepare to engage with the new one.

For macro transitions where you are moving between different projects or different types of work, you're going to need something more substantial for your reset ritual. Here's what I recommend. Clear your workspace, both physical and digital. This is helpful because it removes the visual reminders of the previous context. Then review your goals and priorities for the new context so you remember what success looks like for that project. Set your intention for how you want to show up what energy level, what mindset, what approach and gather the necessary materials, whether they be physical or digital, and open the right applications before you start working.

Now these macro rituals are going to take longer because the context switch is greater. They still shouldn't take you more than five to 10 minutes, and they prevent confusion and false starts that waste so much more time. Now let's talk about emergency transitions and planned out of office breaks. When life interrupts your planned workflow or when you take scheduled time off, whether it's for surgery, a vacation, or to attend a conference, you need triage rituals. Assess what absolutely must happen versus what can wait. Lower your standards temporarily because emergency mode is not the time for perfectionism. Ask for help if you have it available because now is not the time to be a hero and plan your re-entry strategy ahead of time instead of hoping momentum will automagically return.

If that works for you, I want to know about it. Emergency rituals are really more about damage control and setting yourself up to recover quickly once the crisis or the break has passed. Now let's talk about context switching strategies. I want to get specific here because managing different types of context switches are important. There is no one tool for all uses when you're switching from creative work to administrative work. This is one of the most jarring transitions of all because you're moving from open ended generative thinking to structured detail-oriented tasks. What do I recommend? Build in buffer time, I'd say 15 minutes on average. Some people can do it in 10, some people need 20 or more.

But you need to build in the buffers to let your brain shift gears. Using different physical spaces if possible, is really helpful, even if it's just moving from your desk to the kitchen table or even changing the direction that your chair is oriented. Switch to different tools and applications to signal the change and close your creative software while opening your spreadsheet. Also match these transitions to your natural energy rhythms. Do your creative work when you're fresh and administrative work when you're a little more fatigued, but not so fatigued that you're going to make careless mistakes, especially when it comes to money like bookkeeping or sending out invoices.

Client A to client B requires additional different switching of your mental models about priorities, communication, style and projects details. So, before you switch, review your previous notes for the new client to refresh your memory. Close all tabs and files related to the previous client to avoid unnecessary confusion. Here's something that's kind of unexpected but surprisingly effective right before you start work on the new client project, say their name. Say their name out loud. Seriously, it is a seriously effective pattern interrupt and it helps your brain make the switch.

On the client CRM that I use, I ask my clients to upload their headshot to our shared portal. So before I start my meeting with them, I can not only say their name out loud, but look at their image. I also quickly check my note from our last meeting and my goals for this one because starting from scratch costs everybody. How about moving from high focus work to low focus work? Well, in my experience, that is about managing energy levels and cognitive demand. When you're transitioning from intense, demanding work to lighter tasks, use transition activities what am I talking about? A quick check of your email, organizing some files, or updating your project management system with a couple of status updates. Build in recovery time after intense focus sessions instead of immediately jumping to the next demanding task and don't fight your natural rhythms.

If you know you're tired after deep work, plan a break, then easier tasks for afterwards. If you tend to get a little hypnotized when you check your email, this might not be the best transition activity for you. The same goes for quote unquote checking social media, which can all too easily become checking out. Now, if you're juggling multiple projects simultaneously, like so many creative solopreneurs, you need systems to prevent context confusion and maintain your progress on all fronts. First, you use visual cues to distinguish one project from another. A lot of my clients use different colors in their calendar, different folders on their desktop, different notebooks, or even different workspaces.

Your brain processes visual information much faster than text, so color coding helps you switch contexts more quickly. I have so many clients who have found this strategy to improve their ability to move from one project to another by 30% or more. Second batch similar tasks across projects whenever possible, and I recommend only doing this when your brain is fresh. So instead of doing a little marketing for each project throughout the week, maybe you dedicate Monday morning to marketing across all projects. Instead of checking email for each client separately, you handle all client communication in designated time blocks.

Now, this strategy is not going to be helpful if you're easily confused and you've been making a lot of mistakes so take this one with a grain of salt. Maintain your project momentum and use regular check ins. Even when you can't work on Project B for a week, spend five minutes on Friday reviewing where you left off and what you need to do when you return to it. This one is counterintuitive and most of us don't do it. But it keeps the project alive in your mind and when you do get around to resuming work on it, the re-entry is going to be so much easier.

Most of us avoid even thinking about any project we're not currently working on, but these quick check ins are going to make it much easier to re-engage when you do get around to it. Guaranteed. And fourth, resist the urge to jump between projects when you hit resistance. If you're stuck on Project A, there's going to be a strong temptation to switch to Project B for a while. Now sometimes this is smart, but let's be honest, most of the time it's just avoidance. So, before you switch, ask yourself, am I switching because I'm genuinely blocked or because it's getting hard.

For me, the rule of thumb is this. I allow myself to switch to working on a different project when I'm starting to feel bored, not when it's feeling challenging. Because guess what? It will still be challenging when you get back to it and avoidance, like all behavior, is habit forming. Now, most entrepreneurs underestimate how much time transitions actually require. And then we wonder why we're always running behind. I strongly recommend you begin building transition time into your schedule explicitly instead of just pretending context switches are instantaneous and take care of themselves. For tasks switching within the same project, allow 5 to 10 minutes between different types of work.

If you're switching from one project to another, allow 15 to 20 minutes to close out one context and open the next. For client switching, 20 to 30 minutes is probably going to be necessary to review your previous notes and refocus. And for major context challenges like switching from client work to your own business development, you may very well need 30 to 45 minutes for a complete mental reset. Now listen, I'm an entrepreneur too, and I know this seems like a lot of time you just don't have. In fact, I can clearly imagine your eyes rolling in response to this suggestion. But can I give you the real truth? It's time you are already spending.

You're just spending it inefficiently through false starts and rework. When you plan for transitions explicitly, they become smoother and the project actually takes less time overall. Now, sometimes life blows up your plan transitions, you get sick, family emergencies happen, and clients have urgent requests you simply didn't anticipate. So, here's how to recover quickly when your transition system breaks down, notice I didn't say if. First, don't try to pick up where you left off immediately. Start with a quick brain dump of everything you remember about your projects, even if it's messy and incomplete. This gets the information out of your head and onto paper where you can organize it. And notice I said paper, it really seems to help.

And there's a lot of neuroscience research backing this up to brain dump on an actual piece of paper and pen, not on a digital file. Next, prioritize getting back into the rhythm rather than catching up on work, choose one project to focus on first. Get back into a regular work pattern with that project and then gradually start adding other projects back in. Third, calibrate your standards temporarily. Your first week back from a major disruption is not about catching up, it's about rebuilding momentum. Give yourself permission to be less productive while your systems come back online. And fourth, rebuild your transition systems gradually. Don't try to implement everything all at once.

Start with basic breadcrumb trails, then add rituals, then optimize for efficiency. I know how hard we tend to be on ourselves and how much we tend to do everything all at once. But if you layer it in like a parfait first your breadcrumb trails, then your rituals, then optimize for efficiency, it's going to be so much easier on your nervous system and the quality of your output is going to be chef's kiss. Now let me walk you through some brief real world applications of what shifting smoothly looks like in different scenarios. First up, managing client work and doing your business development on your own business. Instead of randomly jumping between client projects and your own marketing based on whatever happens to feel urgent, here's what smooth shifting looks like.

Dedicated blocks for each type of work with clear transition rituals. Let's say Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning for client work, Tuesday, Thursday morning working on your own business, 15 minute buffer between blocks to close out one context and open up the next and different physical locations or workplace setups that signal the change. End of block notes about where to pick up next time. Seasonal business transitions Instead of switching from one peak season chaos back to strategic planning without any bridge, smooth shifting looks like this. A planned transition week between seasons day one and two for completing and closing out peak season projects.

Day three for a full brain dump and project review, day four to five for strategic planning and goal setting for the next season and clear boundaries between reactive mode and strategic mode instead of trying to do both simultaneously. If you're recovering from illness or vacation, don't just jump back into full productivity mode immediately and feel overwhelmed by everything you missed, that will cancel the benefits of any vacation. Instead, smooth shifting looks like this, planned reentry processes spread over several days. Maybe day one you review your notes and assess what happened while you were away. Day two, you reprioritize and update project timelines. Day three, you begin tackling the most urgent items. And day four plus you return to normal productivity levels.

And if you're managing multiple client projects like most people I know, instead of jumping between them randomly and constantly getting confused about the details of one project and the other, smooth shifting has client specific days and time blocks with clear boundaries, a dedicated setup time at the beginning of each client session where you review previous notes and goals, client specific folders with different colors or workspaces to minimize confusion, and at the end of the session notes for the next time, plus buffer time between different clients so that you can mentally switch contexts. And if this sounds complicated, it's a pattern that's always the same. Intentional boundaries, transition rituals, breadcrumb systems, and buffer time. That's it.

I've just explained how these four things in the system look in a variety of different contexts that are probably very familiar to everyone listening. And smooth transitions aren't just about managing your day, they're about maintaining the momentum you create. So, over the last three episodes we have built a complete system for managing start stopped shift cycles that govern most business activities and here's what's really important to understand. It's not a linear process. I mean, let's face it, business, especially with adhd, is not start, then stop, then shift. It's an ongoing cycle where each phase repeats and influences the others. When you start strong with built in course correction, you're far less likely to get lost and stuck in research as a rabbit hole.

When you stop smart with clear completion criteria, you maintain your momentum for starting the next thing. And when you shift smoothly with proper transition systems, you preserve the energy you need for both strong starts and smart stops. It all works together as an integrated system for managing our business with an ADHD brain. And speaking of systems, your feedback has been helping me build something over these three episodes. It is the Start Stop Shift toolkit and it's not generic productivity advice. It is a comprehensive system built from the real challenges we face as entrepreneurs and creatives and independent professionals with ADHD traits. If you'd like to get your hands on your free copy, just click on the link in the show notes and remember, tell a friend you know the one.